1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for delivering electronic components, in particular SMD components, to an insertion unit, a bar unit formed from a plurality of components being provided to a delivery unit having a plurality of delivery rails.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to produce electronic circuits, insertion units are known, in which circuit carriers are fitted with electronic components. The electronic components are usually kept ready as a unit. In particular, high-value components, such as integrated circuits, plugs, etc., are delivered to the insertion unit as a bar unit. For the purpose of setting up the insertion unit, the bar units are usually kept ready in a delivery unit of a mobile change table. The delivery unit has a plurality of delivery rails, which are assigned to corresponding delivery lines of the insertion unit. Since, in particular during setup, the delivery unit is filled with bar units at a location remote from the insertion unit, if there is inattention on the part of the operator, erroneous assignment of the bar unit to the predefined delivery rail of the delivery unit may occur. This leads to the erroneous population of the circuit carrier in the insertion unit.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to develop a device for delivering electronic components in such a way that secure and reliable fitting of electronic components is ensured.
In order to achieve this object, the delivery rail is in each case assigned an actuating unit which, depending on delivery control data processed in a control unit, can be brought into a locked position in which the delivery rail is blocked or into an unlocked position in which the delivery rail is released.
The particular advantage of the device according to the invention resides in the fact that setup and refilling errors are reliably avoided. Furthermore, machine stoppages can be reduced or avoided, since the rapid and secure assignment of the bar unit to corresponding delivery rails of a delivery unit is ensured. The basic idea of the invention is to specify a checking mechanism which reliably prevents erroneous manual assignment of the bar units to the respective delivery rails. According to the invention, the delivery unit is assigned a control unit to generate delivery control data, which are transmitted to an actuating unit respectively assigned to a delivery rail. Depending on the content of the delivery control data, the actuating unit is actuated, so that it is brought either into a locked position in which the delivery of the bar unit is blocked or into an unlocked position in which said delivery of the bar unit is released.
According to a development of the invention, the control unit has a way of acquiring and processing component-related data relating to the bar unit or, respectively, fitting-related data containing setup information. By entering the component-related data of a specific bar unit, the delivery rail for the corresponding bar unit can be determined, while taking account of the fitting-related data. As a result of the output of delivery control data, the actuating unit of the corresponding delivery rail is brought into an unlocked position, so that the bar unit can be inserted into an insertion area of the delivery rail.
The component-related data of the bar unit can advantageously be applied to the unit as a bar code marking, so that they can be read into the control unit by a reader unit connected to the control unit. The fact that the component-related data are permanently coupled to the bar unit avoids confusion between the bar units when they are assigned to the delivery rails.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the component-related data can also be stored in a memory of a chip card, the chip card being permanently connected to a corresponding bar unit via a coupling element. As a result of the design as a chip card, any change to the component-related data can be made in an electronically simple way.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the actuating element is designed as an electromagnetic actuating element and has a locking cylinder, which is designed such that it can be displaced transversely with respect to the conveying direction predefined by the delivery rail. By being driven electrically, these can be brought simply into a locked or unlocked position.
According to a development of the invention, the actuating elements are in each case connected via a plug-in connection to a common distributor strip. The distributor strip is preferably connected mechanically and electrically to the control unit. This advantageously results in a modular structure of the device according to the invention, which can easily be mounted on an existing delivery unit.
According to a development of the invention, the actuating element and/or the distributor light-emitting unit, by which, in particular in the case of a large number of delivery rails, the strip have detection of the association by the operator is made easier.